| China scrambles jets to new defense zone, eyes U.S., Japan flights Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST By Ben Blanchard and Roberta Rampton BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China scrambled jets on Friday in response to two U.S. spy planes and 10 Japanese aircraft, including F-15 fighters, entering its new air defense zone over the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua said, raising the stakes in a standoff with the United States, Japan and South Korea. The jets were scrambled for effective monitoring, Xinhua cited air force spokesman Shen Jinke as saying. Japan and South Korea flew military aircraft through the zone, which includes the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute between Japan and China, the two countries said on Thursday. |
| Helicopter crashes into Glasgow pub, multiple casualties: BBC Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:35 PM PST  (Reuters) - A helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow on Friday, causing multiple injuries, the BBC reported on its website. BBC News quoted Member of Parliament Jim Murphy as saying: "It's a well established Glasgow pub. It's a horrible, horrible scene, but well done to the folk who were here. Everyone formed a chain of people from inside the pub to outside, and the fire brigade and everyone were here very quickly." The BBC named the pub as the Clutha Vaults in Stockwell Street.
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| Tents, refugees crowd Lebanese valley - just don't call it a camp Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:13 PM PST  By Oliver Holmes ARSAL, Lebanon (Reuters) - White tents with "The U.N. Refugee Agency" written on them flap in the wind outside the Lebanese mountain town of Arsal. In all respects, it is a refugee camp, but you must not call it that, say officials. The site is home to about 350 people who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria - the first officially U.N.-run plot set up for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, complete with running water, toilets and other services.
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| Venezuela's Maduro vows stricter business inspections Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:43 PM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas. "We're not joking, we're defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month. Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical - and often televised - wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices. He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela's economy and force him from office.
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| Iran sees nuclear deal implementation starting by early January Posted: 29 Nov 2013 08:07 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The implementation of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for some sanctions relief is expected to start by early January, its envoy to the U.N. atomic agency said on Friday. Israel, believed to be the region's only nuclear-armed state, has denounced the deal as an "historic mistake" since it does not dismantle its arch foe's uranium enrichment program. The Jewish state sees Iran as a threat to its existence. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency told an IAEA board meeting that "the increasing concerns regarding Iran's activities related to nuclear weapons should be thoroughly investigated and clarified".
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| Fatalities likely after police helicopter hits Scottish pub Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:42 PM PST  Glasgow (AFP) - A police helicopter crashed into a pub in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Friday and fatalities are likely, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said.
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| Scottish leader: Fatalities likely in copter crash Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:42 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Scotland's leader has warned that fatalities are likely after a police helicopter slammed late Friday night into the roof of a popular pub in Glasgow.
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| Scotland says could be fatalities in helicopter pub crash Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:37 PM PST LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said on Friday that people should prepare for the likelihood of fatalities after a police helicopter crashed into a busy pub in Glasgow. "Given an incident of this scale we must all prepare ourselves for the likelihood of fatalities," Salmond said, adding that a full rescue operation was under way. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Bill Trott) |
| Egypt Islamists rally to defy protest law Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:35 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces firing tear gas and water cannons on Friday broke up anti-government demonstrations by Islamists defying a draconian new law restricting protests.
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| Helicopter crashes into roof of Glasgow pub Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:32 PM PST LONDON (AP) — A helicopter slammed late Friday night into the roof of a popular pub in Glasgow, Scotland, apparently crashing inside the building and littering the roof with debris. |
| Concerns about complacency amid S.Africa's HIV treatment success Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:29 PM PST  South Africa has been hailed as a model for HIV treatment, but some now fear its very success may be breeding complacency and making people less careful about infection. South Africa's free drugs programme for AIDS has expanded rapidly to 2.4 million people -- more than double the number three years ago -- and boasts the largest treatment project in the world. At a clinic at one Johannesburg public hospital, life-saving anti-retroviral drugs are dispensed at the click of a button. The hi-tech dispensary bears testimony to how far Africa's largest economy has come after a court forced it to give free AIDS medicines -- called anti-retrovirals or ARVs -- in 2002.
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| Fire hits Brazil's Latin America Memorial Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:28 PM PST  SAO PAULO (AP) — The fire department of Brazil's biggest city says a fire swept through a large auditorium in Sao Paulo's Latin America Memorial, a political, cultural and leisure complex designed by famed architect Oscar Niemeyer.
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| US forces operating 'normally' in China air zone Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:25 PM PST  US military chiefs insist they will not change their operations despite a move by China to scramble fighter jets to monitor American and Japanese aircraft in Beijing's newly declared air defence zone. China flew warplanes into its air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday, Chinese state media said, nearly a week after it announced the zone, which covers islands at the centre of a dispute between Beijing and Tokyo, raising regional tensions. The Xinhua report indicated that Japan and the United States are continuing to disregard China's demands that aircraft submit flight plans when traversing the area in the East China Sea or face unspecified "defensive emergency measures".
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| Haitians take to streets in anti-government protests Posted: 29 Nov 2013 04:10 PM PST  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Thousands of young Haitians demonstrated Friday in several cities demanding that President Michel Martelly step down. In the capital of Port-au-Prince, demonstrators from multiple neighborhoods converged on the US embassy to denounce what they said was US interference in the country. No incidents were reported but tear gas was fired to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the diplomatic building. Amid the protests, an English-language placard referring to the president and Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe read: "We say no to Martelly and Lamothe."
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| British families urge action over Zanzibar acid attacks Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:53 PM PST  The families of two British teenage girls who had acid hurled in their faces in Zanzibar expressed frustration on Friday that no one has been charged almost four months later. Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee, both 18, are still recovering from the attack by two men on a motorbike as they strolled through Stone Town, the historic centre of the popular Indian Ocean tourist island, in August.
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| Ukrainian opposition accuses Yanukovich of stealing EU dream Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:44 PM PST  By Thomas Grove and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's political opposition said on Friday that President Viktor Yanukovich had 'stolen the dream' of closer integration with Europe as his supporters hailed his decision to spurn a European Union free trade deal. In a sea of blue and gold, the colors of both the EU and Ukrainian flags, some 10,000 protesters chanted "Ukraine is Europe" in Independence Square, the theatre of the Orange Revolution of 2004-5 that thwarted Yanukovich's first presidential bid. The scuffle occurred as police tried to remove passersby near Independence Square to try to clear a pro-EU demonstrator's vehicle from the road.
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| Thai protesters target army, ruling party headquarters Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:35 PM PST Defiant Thai opposition protesters stormed the army headquarters and besieged Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's party offices on Friday, intensifying their fight to bring down her government. Boisterous demonstrators have targeted key government buildings in Bangkok in the biggest street protests since mass rallies in 2010 degenerated into the kingdom's worst civil strife in decades. The protesters -- a mix of royalists, southerners and the urban middle class sometimes numbering in their tens of thousands -- are united by their loathing of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Protesters are demanding the end of the "Thaksin regime" and want to replace the government with an unelected "people's council". |
| Ukraine opposition demands leader resign after EU snub Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:34 PM PST  Ukraine's opposition vowed at a mass rally in Kiev on Friday to maintain pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych to step down after he refused to salvage a key deal with the European Union. Speaking to around 10,000 supporters, opposition leaders said Yanukovych had until mid-March to sign a political and free trade deal with the bloc. "We are demanding Yanukovych's resignation," said an opposition statement read out at the evening rally by an activist and singer who goes by the stage name Ruslana, in the presence of top leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. "We declare that we are continuing to fight for a European Ukraine," said the flamboyant singer, who won the Eurovision song contest in 2004.
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| With new air zone, China tests U.S. dominance in East Asia Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST By Greg Torode and Linda Sieg HONG KONG/TOKYO (Reuters) - China's new air defense zone, stretching far into East Asia's international skies, is an historic challenge to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades. For years, Chinese naval officers have told their U.S. counterparts they are uncomfortable with America's presence in the western Pacific - and Beijing is now confronting strategic assumptions that have governed the region since World War Two. China's recent maritime muscle-flexing in disputes over the Paracel islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and over Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea has stirred concern and extensive backroom diplomacy in Washington. But it took the events of the last week to spark an immediate and symbolic response from the United States - the unannounced appearance in the zone of two unarmed B-52 bombers from the fortified island of Guam, the closest U.S. territory to the Chinese coast. |
| Reading down promotion rivals Forest Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:15 PM PST  Reading climbed to fourth in the Championship as the 10-man Royals earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over promotion rivals Nottingham Forest on Friday. Nigel Adkins' side had fallen out of the second tier play-off places after failing to win in their previous four matches, but they ended that run in dramatic fashion at the City Ground. Pavel Pogrebnyak opened the scoring for Reading with a close-range finish from Garath McCleary's cross in the eighth minute and Kaspars Gorkss powered home a header to put the visitors 2-0 ahead four minutes later. Forest responded impressively and Simon Cox reduced the deficit with a clinical finish from Jamie Mackie's cross five minutes before half-time.
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| Several thousand in Haiti march in 2 protests Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:13 PM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Several thousand Haitians marched in parallel protests on Friday in the Caribbean nation's capital.
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| Moody's upgrades Greek credit rating Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:03 PM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Ratings agency Moody's late Friday upgraded Greece's credit rating, citing improved results in the crisis-hit country's economic adjustment program.
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| Flood kicks Leicester to victory Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:56 PM PST  London (AFP) - England's Toby Flood kicked 17 points as Premiership champions Leicester clinched a 22-17 victory over Gloucester at Kingsholm on Friday.
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| Colombian FARC rebels say they taxed coca growers Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:52 PM PST  Havana (AFP) - Colombia's FARC rebels acknowledged Friday that they collected taxes from coca cultivators but rejected accusations of "narco-terrorism."
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| Design fault likely caused Latvia roof cave-in: builders Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:46 PM PST  The builders of a supermarket that collapsed in Latvia last week, killing 54 and injuring dozens, released a preliminary report Friday saying the cause was likely a design error. "The main causes of the roof collapse of the shopping centre (were that) crude errors were made when calculating the load on the ceiling," said the report, seen by AFP. Two other probes, by the Latvian government and the Riga city council, are ongoing while the police conduct a criminal investigation. On Friday, officers raided Re&Re's offices, along with those of supermarket chain Maxima and others connected to the construction of the shopping centre.
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| Yemeni president says he will not tolerate seccession of south Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:39 PM PST  Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi warned Friday against any attempt to undermine his country's unity, after southern secessionists pulled out of a national dialogue with the central government. "I will not allow anyone to haggle over the issue of the south of Yemen's unity," Hadi said in a speech marking the 46th anniversary of the independence of South Yemen from British occupation. South and North Yemen united in 1990. The contentious southern question has been a stumbling block for the national dialogue, in which moderate members of the Southern Movement have been demanding greater autonomy.
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| Iran nuclear freeze 'to start by January' Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:33 PM PST Vienna (AFP) - Iran's six-month freeze of its nuclear programme agreed with world powers in Geneva will start by early January, Tehran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog indicated Friday. |
| Mozambique passenger plane carrying 34 missing: airline Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:26 PM PST  A Mozambican Airlines airplane carrying 28 passengers and six crew members went missing en route from Mozambique to Angola on Friday, the airline said. Flight TM470 took off from Maputo at 09H26 GMT and had been due to land in the Angolan capital Luanda at 13H10 GMT, but never arrived, the airline said in a statement. "Initial information suggests it might have landed in Rundu, in northern Namibia near the border with Botswana and Angola." "LAM airlines, aeronautical and airport authorities are trying to establish contact to confirm the information," it added.
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| Honduran leftist presidential candidate to unveil 'fraud' Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:20 PM PST  Honduran leftist presidential candidate Xiomara Castro vowed Friday to deliver proof of the fraud she claims cheated her out of the presidency. The electoral authorities called Sunday's election in favor of her conservative rival Juan Orlando Hernandez. She is the wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military-backed coup just four years ago after his politics veered to the left. Castro's campaign earlier charged that electoral authorities unfairly gave a 19 percent advantage to Hernandez, cheating Castro out of a win that would make her the first woman president of Honduras.
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| Malian separatist rebels end ceasefire after clashes Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:19 PM PST By Adama Diarra BAMAKO (Reuters) - Separatist Tuareg rebels said on Friday they were ending a five-month-old ceasefire with Mali's government and taking up arms following violence in the northern city of Kidal. "The political and military wings of the Azawad (MNLA, MAA and HCUA) declare the lifting of the ceasefire with the central government in Bamako," said a statement by Attaye Ag Mohamed, one of the founders of the MNLA groups. A French-led military offensive routed the Islamists but tension remains between the central government and Tuareg separatists demanding an independent homeland they call Azawad. |
| Six dead as immigrant boat sinks off Turkey Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:17 PM PST  Six people, including a child, drowned on Friday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants trying to reach Greece capsized off western Turkey, according to officials and reports. The sinking is the latest fatal tragedy in European waters that has sparked calls for action over the vast tide of illegal immigration from the Middle East and Africa. "Acting on a tip-off at 2:30 am (0030 GMT) the coastguard seized the boat and recovered five bodies," Turkish coastguard official Arslan Dede told AFP. Turkey, which hosts about 600,000 Syrians who have fled the civil war in their country, has become a hub for illegal immigrants who aspire to reach Europe in the search for a better life.
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| I.Coast to hold next president polls Oct 2015: Ouattara Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:10 PM PST  Bouaké (Ivory Coast) (AFP) - Ivory Coast will hold its next presidential polls in October 2015, said President Alassane Ouattara, whose election in 2010 touched off a wave of violence that left 3,000 dead.
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| Yemen president rules out southern split, separatists call rallies Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST  Yemen's president ruled out ever allowing the partition of the country, challenging southern separatists who called for demonstrations across their territory to press for independence. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi spoke on the eve of southern celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of British rule, underlined a hardening standoff between his government and the separatists. "Those seeking division ... are seeking only an illusive mirage and self interest and not public or national interests," Hadi said on Friday in a speech carried by state news agency Saba. He spoke two days after a south Yemeni separatist leader and supporters walked out of national reconciliation talks meant to chart a new constitution for the U.S.-allied country, that is also facing a northern rebellion and attacks by one of the deadliest branches of al Qaeda.
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| Tuaregs declare return to war against Mali army Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:50 PM PST  The ethnic Tuareg rebellion announced Friday it would return to war against Mali's army after it said one person was killed and five others injured in clashes with soldiers at an airport. "What happened (on Thursday) is a declaration of war. We will deliver this war," said Mahamadou Djeri Maiga, vice-president of the MNLA, or the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. "Wherever we find the Malian army we will launch the assault against them.
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| Year after UN vote, Palestinians eye diplomatic action Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:46 PM PST  A year after the Palestinians were granted non-member observer status by the United Nations, pressure is mounting on their leaders to exploit that rather than pursue peace talks few see bearing fruit. No official ceremony was scheduled Friday in the Palestinian territories to mark the historic November 29, 2012 vote of the UN General Assembly. But in comments published Thursday by official news agency Wafa, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas pledged to do everything possible to establish a Palestinian state with its capital in Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem. He said he would "never give up an ounce of the Palestinians' demands nor sign a peace agreement that failed to meet the aspirations of the people."
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| World War I battlefield soil arrives in London Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:43 PM PST  A Belgian warship on Friday carried 70 bags of soil from World War I battlefields to London, where it will be laid in a memorial garden ahead of the 100th anniversary of the start of the conflict. London's famous Tower Bridge lifted to allow the Belgian navy frigate Louisa Marie to sail up the River Thames and deliver the soil to the British warship HMS Belfast. The bags of soil, which were gathered by more than 1,000 British and Belgian schoolchildren earlier this year, will be placed in a new memorial garden at Wellington barracks in central London on Saturday.
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